Coolidge was decisive

February 16, 2013

I choose Republican Calvin Coolidge, who became president in August 1923 when Warren Harding unexpectedly died as his presidency unraveled. Perhaps best known for firmness during the 1919 Boston police strike — "There is no right to strike against the public safety by anybody, anywhere, any time." — Coolidge was decisive, cool under fire, not flamboyant, favored civil rights, and was easily elected in 1924.

According to Alfred E. Smith, the 1928 Democratic presidential candidate, Coolidge was "distinguished for character more than for heroic achievement … His great task was to restore the dignity and prestige of the presidency when it had reached the lowest ebb in our history … in a time of extravagance and waste … ."

President Coolidge did this while reducing federal spending and regulatory power. Unafraid to say "no," Coolidge issued 50 vetoes, including 30 pocket vetoes that could not be overridden. He would address today's unemployment vigorously by cutting taxes and unleashing free enterprise, not suffocating it. Although Coolidge said, "The chief business of America is business," he later observed, "Prosperity is only an instrument to be used, not a deity to be worshiped."

Not a foreign policy activist, Coolidge pushed the 1928 Kellogg-Briand Pact that renounced war as an instrument of national policy. All these qualities recommend "Silent Cal" to me today.